red letter day

See also: red-letter day

English

Alternative forms

• red-letter day

Etymology

From the practice of marking feast-days in red on church calendars.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

red letter day (plural red letter days)

1. (idiomatic) A particularly significant day or a day to celebrate (personal or sectarian).

   Monday was a red letter day for her. She accomplished a lot and had fun doing it.

   We saw losses for days in a row, but Black Tuesday was the worst red letter day of them all.

   • 1975, John Ankenbruck, Twentieth Century History of Fort Wayne - Page 286

     "In the meantime, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre at Chicago was a red-letter day in the gangster wars."

Usage notes

• Usually used to refer to a notably positive, favorable occasion, but sometimes used with a negative sense.

Synonyms

• day of days

Antonyms

• black letter day

Translations

day of special significance

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: merkkipäivä
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: merkedag m

  Nynorsk: merkedag m

• Russian: па́мятный день m (pámjatnyj denʹ), пра́здник (ru) m (prázdnik)